"Fortunes Told Here"
Posted on 06 May 2026 @ 1:57pm by Lieutenant Commander Riah Amberlyn XMD & Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
2,930 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
The Starfall Carnival
Location: Promenade :: Starfall Carnival
Timeline: After mid-night, Station time.
~~~
// Promenade :: The Starfall Carnival //
Riah Amberlyn and Steve Remington sauntered leisurely through the thinning crowd. It was late, even by station time, but the time adjustment from Ship’s time to Station time left both of them wide awake at this tender hour of the Station’s morning. The Carnival ran all the time, on most nights, though the most elaborate shows and events were staged during mid-day to about 2300 Station time. That happened to be 1900 Arawyn time. So at 0010 hours, just after mid-night on the Station, these two officers had the privilege of seeing how the performers and carnival workers began to shift to a lower key.
Gaila was too lazy to advertise her tent herself, but she spent a bare minimum to hire helpers to go out and find easy marks they could bring into the tent. She kept those helpers strategically busy at night rather then the daytime when the carnival was busy. Unlike most of the other tents, she didn't want to draw unnecessary crowds.
The small Orion girl hesitated when she saw Riah, since she was with a companion. But so far things were slow so she chanced it. "Want to see your fortune, miss? Gaila's waters come right from the temple of Boreth!’"
The young girl was perhaps 14-15 years old in Terran years. Still Riah’s first reaction was to wave her off with a polite no thank you. But before she could react, Remington spoke up.
“Who’s Gaila and where’s the Temple of Boreth?” Steve asked.
The girl's eyes widened.."Gaila is the mistress of the future. Some say she is a time-traveller herself, sir. Her tent is that way." The youngster pointed to a tent somewhat deliberately hidden from the others.
“Steve, you don’t wanna do this. Let’s get something to eat,” said Riah.
“Nah, it’s okay.” Steve relented, tossing the girl a single credit for her trouble. As they walked on Steve turned to look behind him. The girl stood checking out the credit, making sure it was real, he supposed. “She’s likely to get in trouble with her Mistress of the Future for not bringing in a client.”
“You gave her a credit.”
“And she’ll either have to hide it, if she can, or give it to her Mistress. These people don’t live by the same moral rules as you and I,” he added.
“I know. Which is why we don’t need to get involved with the Mistress of the Future in the first place,” countered the Doctor.
“Ah come on.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
"No!”
“Yes!”
Riah heaved a sigh. “Ok, you win. Let’s go.”
// Gaila’s Inner Sanctum //
Gaila's shrunken eyes lit up as the two of them emerged into her tent. "Greetings, seekers!" she said. "Welcome to the tent of divination."
She was still smoking her pipe, and the smell of tobacco was in the air. A helpful sign nearby told them that cards would be read for two credits, a crystal ball divination would be three, and sampling the waters currently simmering in the cauldron would cost five.
"Are you wondering about your individual futures? Or perhaps your future together. I can do either," Gaila said.
She gave a small chuckle. "Of course the quality of service will depend on what you are willing to pay. The cards will be a waypost. The ball will show you one clear view into your future, but only one. And the waters...they will show you the complete truth, no matter how harsh it might be.”
“Well, I don’t think I’m up for anything harsher than what I’ve just been through, so let’s stick to the cards for me. And we’re not together,” explained Riah.
Steve rolled his eyes. “The cards for the lady and I’ll take a look in that crystal ball. Just out of curiosity, though, what are the waters?” he asked.
"Secrets of the trade, my boy," Gaila said. "Forgive me. I am well into the years so I will need to do this one at a time.”
Gaila lit her pipe again, but a different smell permeated the air. It was nothing sinister, a Vulcan herb to relax the three occupants, often used in meditation. Remington recognized the scent.
She lifted a velvet-red cloth from the crystal ball, which glowed slightly with some kind of hidden light. "Ask a question, and keep it firmly in your mind. Gaze into the ball, and find your answer." She invited. If it was only just him, she might have introduced something in the air to increase his chances of 'seeing' something. But she didn't dare try that with his companion present. She made a mental note to instruct her helpers to only choose single marks going forwards. She sat back and waited.
“Mmm. I don’t see anything,” said Steve.
“Be patient with yourself. Look through the glass, allow your gaze to soften and look through to the other side,” suggested Gaila.
"I see...maybe something? I'm not sure," Steve said.
"Be patient with yourself. Even if the vision doesn't become clear now, it certainly will later. Perhaps in dreams," Gaila said.
“I thought you were supposed to tell me my fortune,” said Steve.
“You must tell me what you see,” Gaila replied.
Steve returned his gaze into the ball and the vague image of himself riding a horse along the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea appeared. He explained the scene to Gaila. “What does that mean?”
“Horses indicate a sense of power and the energy to move forward. The cliff indicates you are living a dangerous life, but the horse, the power, supports you,” she said.
Steve was not impressed. He looked again, trying to do as the woman had suggested and look through the glass ball instead of into the center of it. The same horse appeared, riderless, and leapt over the edge of the cliff into the sky. Flying on suddenly visible wings, soaring and diving and gliding on the eddies of air lifting from the sea but the cliff wall. He explained that scene to Gaila. “Got a clue?”
“You have become the horse. Embodying the power."
“I’ve seen enough,” he concluded.
“And so it is,” she replied, handing Riah the stack of cards. “And you have come for clarity, yes?
“Something like that,” replied Riah. She cast a quick glance at Steve.
“First, may I know your name?” asked the fortune teller.
“Catherine,” replied Riah. Knowing someone’s name gave you power over them, psychologically, and perhaps energetically.
“Catherine. You must choose a card representing yourself from the shuffle. Then, once you have selected the card, focus on a question you want answered. Keep it firmly in your mind. I will then create your fortune from there."
“Do I choose a card at random, or can I look through them and pick one?” asked Riah.
"You may look," Gaila invited. "But do be gentle. The cards are old. Have been with Gaila for thirty-some-odd years.”
For all his curiosity about the fortune teller, Steve was also cautious, aware that many a charlatan had duped people of a great deal of money in a fortune telling booth. “She’s a …” He stopped, deciding it was best not to tell the woman that Riah was a surgeon and certainly knew how to be gentle with old cards. “… good card shuffler,” he concluded and stood behind and to the right of Riah.
Gaila sat behind a small, oval table, draped in a claret red tablecloth, with a second dark violet cloth positioned over it. The doctor sat down in the chair on the other side of the table from Gaila. She took the cards held them a moment, feeling a peculiar energetic signature about them. All things had their own vibration, and she had always been able to feel that, though she’d never had any training about it - except with Tarot - her mother had been a big believer in the Cards. It was just good intuition, Riah had always said, but she had been reading cards since she was ten years old, and she knew from their collective experience, the cards could be a window into the subconscious.
My question is, what is really going on here? She noticed her own emotions and feelings. They were not enthusiastic or encouraging. Instead, she felt a sense of unease and an impulse to get them out of her hands. She laid them on the table, face sides up, instead of sorting them in her hands. Spreading them in a loose fan, she picked through them with one finger until she felt a relief of the negativity. The image on the card was a colorful butterfly with two small pentagrams on each wing. The butterfly was spread in all her glory on an open field of pale blue. Riah picked it up. The Two of Pentacles. Mmmmm. Change. Something that needs to happen. Balance, delicate like a butterfly’s wings.
Gaila held out her hand to take the card, but Riah shook her head in the negative. “This is me. I’ll hang onto me, thank you.” She put the card immediately in front of her in reverse, so that the image was facing Gaila, and appeared upside down to Riah. The direction of that card made a difference in the reading. Gaila shrugged and took the move in stride.
“Gather the cards and shuffle them as you think about your question, but don’t say it aloud,” instructed Gaila. They were worn, but unevenly so—the edges of certain cards softer than others. She shuffled slowly, deliberately, watching Gaila from beneath her lashes, then set the cards on the table, and cut them once.
The old woman gathered the cards back with practiced ease, though her fingers lingered just long enough to suggest control rather than ritual. Then she began laying them out in a Celtic Cross formation, or spread.
“This is your present,” Gaila said, placing the first card. Across the first card, she placed a second. “This crosses you—an obstacle. Beneath you, the foundation. Above you, what crowns your thoughts…”
Riah’s gaze dropped to the layout. The positions were… close. Familiar enough to pass but shifted—just slightly off.
Gaila turned the first card. “You’ve been through something difficult,” she began, her tone lowering into something intimate. “But you’re emerging stronger. There’s a sense of… resilience here. You don’t always show it, but it defines you.”
Riah nodded faintly. “I suppose that could be true of anyone.”
Gaila chuckled softly. “Perhaps. But not everyone carries it the way you do.”
She turned another card. “Ah. Conflict. Someone around you is… not entirely honest. You’ve felt this, haven’t you?”
Riah tilted her head, as if considering. “What makes you say that?”
“The card speaks of hidden tensions,” Gaila said smoothly. “Misaligned intentions.”
Riah’s eyes flicked briefly to the spread again. “Is that how you read it reversed?”
Gaila paused—only for a heartbeat. “Reversal amplifies the internal nature of the conflict,” she said. “It becomes more… psychological.”
“I see.” Riah’s tone was mild. “And you read reversals consistently across the spread?”
“Of course.”
Riah nodded, filing that away without comment.
Gaila continued, her voice gaining momentum. “There’s also opportunity. A new path opening—though you may hesitate to take it. You’re cautious by nature.”
Riah smiled slightly. “Am I?”
Gaila met her eyes. “You don’t trust easily.”
Riah let a small silence stretch between them. “That sounds like something you might say to most people.”
Gaila’s smile sharpened. “Only when it’s true.”
“Mm.”
Gaila turned another card, then another, weaving her narrative—broad strokes, careful phrasing, always leaving room to adjust. Riah responded with quiet acknowledgments, offering nothing substantial, nothing to grasp.
After a moment, Riah leaned forward just slightly. “Can I ask something?”
“Of course.”
“This position—” Riah gestured lightly toward one of the cards near the top of the spread, “—you said it represents what ‘crowns’ the situation?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you placed it after the foundation card.” Riah’s tone was curious, not accusatory. “I thought those positions were typically reversed.”
Gaila’s fingers stilled, then resumed their light tapping against the table. “There are many traditions,” she said. “I follow a more intuitive method.”
“Ah.” Riah nodded. “Of course.”
Gaila smiled, reclaiming her rhythm. “The important thing is the message, not the structure.”
“Right.”
A few more cards turned. A few more carefully sculpted insights. Riah pointed to a card displaying six swords placed horizontally above the image of a sleeping fox, who, with one eye open, lay upon the seventh sword, nearly concealing it. “I find it interesting how the Seven of Swords indicates straightforward honesty in certain contexts.”
Gaila glanced at the card in question. “Yes,” she said quickly. “Exactly. It can represent… transparency. A willingness to reveal truth.”
Riah’s eyes lifted to hers. “Even upright?”
“Particularly upright,” Gaila said, leaning in slightly. “It’s about choosing openness.”
Riah held her gaze for a beat longer than before. Then she nodded slowly. “That’s fascinating.”
Gaila smiled, sensing alignment again. “You see? You understand more than you think.”
“Maybe.” Riah rested her elbow lightly on the table. “Or maybe I just enjoy patterns.”
She let her gaze drift over the spread, taking in the cards one by one. “You said earlier,” Riah continued, “that someone around me isn’t entirely honest.”
Gaila inclined her head. “Yes. The cards are quite clear.”
“And that I’m cautious. That I don’t trust easily.”
“That’s right.”
Riah’s lips curved, just slightly. “And yet when I suggested that the Seven of Swords represents honesty, you agreed immediately.”
Gaila’s expression flickered—so quickly it might have been imagined. “There are layers to every card,” she said.
“Of course,” Riah replied. “But that one is fairly consistent, across most systems: secrecy and self-interest.”
Silence settled between them, thinner now.
Riah reached out and, with gentle precision, adjusted one of the cards—rotating it a few degrees. “This spread,” she said, “is almost a Celtic Cross. But the positions are shifted. The sequence is off.”
Gaila’s smile returned, but it no longer reached her eyes. “As I said, I read intuitively.”
“Yes.” Riah withdrew her hand. “You’ve said that a few times.”
Another pause.
“I gave you a few incorrect cues,” Riah said, her tone still even. “Small ones. Nothing dramatic. You followed every one of them.”
Gaila straightened slightly. “I don’t rely on cues. I read energy.”
“Then the energy told you that a card associated with deception meant transparency.” Riah tilted her head. “That’s an interesting interpretation.”
Gaila’s fingers tightened imperceptibly on the edge of the table. “You came here with skepticism.”
“I came here with curiosity.”
Riah glanced down at the spread again, then back up. “Would you like to hear what I see?”
Gaila hesitated. “This is my reading.”
“It was,” Riah said gently.
She gestured to the cards. “This—here—isn’t about someone deceiving me. It’s about performance. Presentation. The careful construction of a narrative that depends on the other person not looking too closely.”
Gaila said nothing.
“And this,” Riah continued, tapping another card, “paired with it—misdirection. Not malicious, necessarily. Habitual. Practiced.”
Her eyes met Gaila’s again, steady and unblinking.
“The spread isn’t about my situation,” Riah said. “It’s about yours.”
The candlelight flickered between them.
Gaila let out a small, controlled breath. “You think you’ve proven something.”
Riah considered that. “I think you rely on people not knowing enough to question you.”
“That’s an assumption.”
Riah adjusted one card with careful precision, aligning it properly within the spread. “I suggested a system,” Riah said. “You agreed with it, but you didn’t understand it. Then you contradicted it.” Her voice remained even, almost gentle. “That’s not intuition,” she said. “That’s improvisation.”
“One more thing,” she added, standing up. “If you’re going to shift the structure, you have to commit to it. You have to believe in it yourself. Half-measures are where the difference shows.”
Gaila’s expression was cold.
Standing up, Riah smiled. “No worries. I’m not going to complain to anyone. No hard feelings. You’re smart and you have a good relationship with your intuition. You could do this honestly. You don’t have to be deceptive. You choose to do that.”
Steve followed her to the doorway, where Riah turned once more. “Good luck Gaila. Make good use of your future.” And they were gone.
She shrugged. Some marks were easier than others. "A pity you did not use all of my services," she said.
She summoned the Orion girl. "Observe them. See that they leave without making a fuss about their experience. And no more couples! Otherwise you're all sleeping on the floor tonight!”
After she left, Gaila stood, and put another vial of the blue liquid into the cauldron. "Very well, then," she muttered to herself. "No more half-measures."
Gaila’s hand hovered over the Seven of Swords. But, she didn’t turn it over.
~~~
LTCmdr Riah Amberlyn, XMD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Arawyn
&
LT Steve Remington, PhD
Zoologist - Science Department
USS Arawyn
&
Gaila - Mistress of the Future
Starfall Carnival
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